Supreme Being

About: Supreme Being is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 192 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1615 citations.

Reading Emerson and Tagore in the Age of Religious Intolerance

Abstract: The greatest problems of the world result from people of different cultures, races and religions being unable to get along and to work together to solve problems such as racism, religious extremism, terrorism and ethnic conflicts. These problems have implicated our contemporary time, especially the post-9/11 era, with anxiety, fear, and suspicion. In this crucial phase of human history, we need what Martha Nussbaum calls an “imaginative capacity” to see how the world looks from the point of view of a person who has a different religion. In this article, I discuss the religious thoughts of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82) and Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). Although they lived in different cultures and belonged to different literary periods, their intellectual correspondence shows how both of them transcended contemporary religious traditions and established an original relationship with the Supreme Being. It is my hope that this comparative analysis, thus far unexplored, will provide us with insights into understanding religion with an “imaginative capacity” at a time when religious intolerance is disrupting peace across the globe.

The Challenge and Reconstructive Impact of African Religion in South Africa Today

Abstract: Introduction "African religion" refers to the indigenous religion of black Africans. It is a religion that includes (1) foundational religious beliefs, such as belief in impersonal mystical powers, belief in spirit beings, belief in a Supreme Being (God), special shrines or worship places designated to the Supreme Being, and a hierarchy of spiritual beings; (2) foundational religious practices, such as establishing links and relationships with cosmic and spiritual and mystical powers, practices relating to rituals and ceremonies, practices relating to spiritual and mystical communication, and practices relating to traditional African specialists; (3) philosophical foundations in traditional worldview, such as the law of harmony, the law of the spirit, the law of power, and the law of kinship; and (4) the belief in spirit beings, such as God, lesser divinities, ordinary spirits, and the ancestors. African religion can also be described as a religion that has been handed down orally from generation to generation by the forebears of the present generation of black Africans. In view of this, it is not a fossil religion of the past but a phenomenon that Africans today have made theirs by living and practicing it. To some, the phrase "African religion" may also apply to African Christianity, African Islam, and Traditional African Religion. This is the approach of Geoffrey Parrinder in his book, Africa's Three Religions. (1) Otherwise, failure to appreciate this insight will lead us to imply erroneously that Christianity and Islam are "foreign" to Africans and that African Christians and African Muslims are alienated from their cultural identity. If we fail to follow this argument, the question would crop up. For example, what will be said about the African-Instituted churches such as the Zion Christian Church with nearly 10,000,000 adherents in South Africa? The concern of this essay, however, is to look at African religion as the pre-Christian and the pre-Muslim religious discourses that have been conducted by indigenous Africans up to the present day. For the working definition here, African religion refers to an indigenous system of beliefs and practices that are integrated into the culture and the worldviews of the African peoples. As in other primal religions, one is born into it as a way of life with its cultural manifestations and religious implications. African religion is thus an integral part of the African ethos and culture. At this juncture, it is imperative to state that, though I am writing on African religion, I subscribe to the evangelical brand of Christianity. As Anthony Balcomb has explained, Evangelicalism is "broadly understood as that brand of Christianity, emerging from the Pietist stream of the Reformed tradition," whose emphasis is on "salvation through personal encounter with the risen Christ." (2) Furthermore, this is intended to include "both Pentecostal/Charismatic movements" as well as those who do not identify with these movements but those "who believe in the need for personal salvation and Christian discipleship through adherence to scripture." (3) It may also include a number of people in the "mainline" or ecumenical churches such as the Anglican Church, the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Roman Catholics, and so forth. (4) Admittedly, I follow in the category of Evangelicals who are from the mainline churches. In particular, I am an Anglican Christian from the Anglican Church of Kenya (East Africa). Nevertheless, being an African Christian researcher, I will try as much as possible here to be fair to the study of African religion so that I do not appear to be speaking for my own professed evangelical Christianity, thereby misrepresenting the subject under discussion. The Plural Context in Doing African Religion We must acknowledge that any religious discourse in South Africa will have to be done within the context of religiosocial pluralism; indeed, Africa is full of plural faith traditions. …

Problems Encountered in the Teaching of Religious Education: A Case Study in Botswana

Abstract: Introduction The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the types of problems faced by teachers since Religious Education was introduced as an examinable subject in primary schools in Botswana. Botswana as a democratic, caring and prosperous country embraces the existence of different religions and worship. This is a welcome development since the country upholds human rights, respects and recognizes the different freedoms enshrined in the national constitution. Despite the different religions that exist in the country, Batswana generally in different forms of art and at the highest level of political decision-making find solace in psychological and humanistic relieve in different components of Christianity as the ultimate solution to existing problems of drought, war, student riots, broken and threaten marriages and other crises including the scourge of HIV/AIDS. This is typified in different forms of prayers held mainly by the mainline churches to call upon the name of God for self-counselling, fitting remedies and ultimate solutions to diverse problems that beset Botswana as a nation. The study is significant because it is likely to inform the theory of both primary and Adult Education. Primary school teachers may use the findings to better teach Religious education without making it a burden to their students since the problems will be known. The study is also important for the theory and practice of Adult education which is practiced on a lifelong basis within and outside in religious institutions. Past researchers have illuminated problems of having different religions and the clash between Christianity and African religions. Theorists can build new ones while practitioners can infuse the findings and recommendations of the study to improve practice at field world in schools. Literature Review The literature and research reviewed by the author at the time of the study ranges from secondary sources on the meaning of religion, and the intended role played by religious education to problems encountered by both students and teachers in teaching Religious Education as an examinable subject in Botswana's primary schools. Religion, order and social justice are expected to inter related concepts that bring about global peace at individual family, community, national and international levels. The three are also filtered in the realm of the human mind and translated into practice, hence the influence of humanistic psychology. In Botswana, recorded Adult education as a field of study, research and an academic discipline is still young, dynamic and therefore in the process of finding its identity. In simple terms, Adult education refers to all organized educational activities to meet the lifelong learning needs of people whose socio-cultural roles define them as adults. Qualifications for adult status in various countries include age, maturity, reproduction, gender roles and other features often identified with social responsibility. Definitions and Functions of Religion and Religious Education Religion and Religious education can be defined in terms of two major streams, the African traditional stream and the foreign stream of religion. African traditional and Christianity as a foreign import are described in the contrast table below. Africans including Batswana have beliefs in gods, ancestors, and other supernatural beings for lifelong protection. Religion in the Western sense is usually identified with a superior being and A Belief in a supreme being, who commands us to behave in a moral fashion on this earth, and promises an afterlife to come (Giddens, p. 531). The superior being, although often equated to some kind of God, means different things to different people, hence the God exists in a context. One of the common goals of religion and religious education is to deal with differences by accommodating people constructively (Sidorkin, 1999). …

Church, State, and the Dilemma of Conscience

Abstract: To the members of the [Maryland Constitutional] Convention, as to the voters who adopted our [State] Constitution, belief in God was equated with a belief in moral accountability and the sanctity of an oath. We may assume that there may be permissible differences in the individual's conception of God. But it seems clear that under our Constitution disbelief in a Supreme Being, and the denial of any moral accountability for conduct, not only renders a person incompetent to hold public office, but to give testimony, or serve as a juror. The historical record makes it clear that religious toleration, in which the State has taken pride, was never thought to encompass the ungodly.1